[quote hamstersarse]@leafyygreens The hysterical reaction to the Great Barrington Declaration which hypothesized the response could be full protection and shielding of vulnerable people while the healthy population gained natural immunity is an example of how we have neglected natural immunity in our response, and continue to do so. We have sort of embraced this approach since July however, letting our young people just get it, but we have very rarely admitted that is what we are doing. Which is strange, maybe because it is on the same lines as the GBD. It most definitely was, and still is, heresy to talk about natural immunity, you do it yourself in your post by saying that people can get it again so that is not OK, but neglect to say that this is not a problem for people who are young, healthy and not vulnerable.
There is no long-term data on how long vaccines do protect people, although it does seem waning is a problem - so is that what we are going to do forever, for people for whom the disease is mild ?Remember that right from the beginning - "for most people the disease will be mild" - are we really going to vaccinate them forever? It is unlikely that natural immunity has the same issues with waning and it also has a 'broader' memory, not just based on a single spike protein which you get from the vaccine.[/quote]
See my above post
This is why I don't think the argument about vaccine immunity waning is the huge deal some people seem to think it is - you've got a level of protection for hopefully the first time you're infected, and then subsequent exposures will keep improving your immune response.
Much in the same way as it is for flu.
The issues with the GBD have been explained many many times. It was never feasible to lockdown the vulnerable and let coronavirus circulate uncontrolled in the UK. The overall mortality rate is low but translates to a huge amount of dead people if you are considering the entire UK population - this would have been even worse when hospitals become saturated, meaning patients would not get the care they needed, and lead to non-COVID deaths.
Factors such transmissible coronavirus was, the risk of long term complications, the rapid mutation rate & emergence of new variants, andthe fact re-infection can occur relatively quickly, it was very obvious that immunity induced by vaccination alongside suppression of cases was the way forward that would lead to the lowest amounts of deaths & disability. The GBD makes absolutely no sense, unless you're trying to kill off swathes of people, in light of this information.